From today the name BAA will be dropped. Heathrow, Glasgow, Aberdeen Southampton and Stansted Airports will operate solely under their own stand-alone brand.

Heathrow Chief Executive, Colin Matthews, said:

âWe are a different company today from when BAA was formed. Over the last few years we have sold our stakes in Gatwick, Edinburgh, Budapest and Naples airports and we are in the process of selling Stansted Airport. The BAA name no longer fits. We do not represent all British airports; we are not a public authority; and practically speaking the company is no longer a group as Heathrow will account for more than 95% of the business.â

Heathrow has secured a prestigious award for âBest Contribution to Corporate Responsibilityâ from The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). This is a global organisation dedicated to promoting best practices in procurement and supply. The shortlist included Balfour Beatty, EDF Energy, The FA Group and LOCOG.

The award recognises âthe highly measurable and sustainable resultsâ associated with a state of the art wood fuel energy system at Heathrowâs new Terminal 2 development. The 10MW Combined Heating and Power (CHP) system - the largest âown useâ renewable energy installation in the UK - will open later this year. Prior to serving T2, due to open in Spring 2014, the biomass energy plant will provide base heating and power to Terminal 5.

London Stansted Airportâs leading role in the UK aviation industry has once again been recognised after being âhighly commendedâ in the Airport of the Year category at the prestigious 2012 National Transport Awards.

The latest award for Londonâs third busiest airport follows being voted the worldâs best airport for low-cost airlines for the second successive year at the World Airport Awards in April.

The ceremony, organised by Transport Times and hosted by radio and TV presenter Jeremy Vine, took place at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, London and was attended by over 600 transport professionals, including the new Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP.

pilot of Air India Express flight 4422 en route to Kochi from Abu Dhabi, made an unscheduled landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport after sending out a hijack alert.

The flight was timetabled to leave at 9:15pm local time yesterday, was delayed over three hours. The original arrival time for Kochi was 3:30, but only reached the designated airspace three and a half hours later, at 7:00am. Due to adverse weather conditions, the pilot could not land and was diverted to Thiruvananthapuram.

When passengers realised their destination had changed, they began an argument with crew, demanding the plane should fly back to Kochi. The crew refused, referring to flight hour regulations, but offered a bus service to ferry the passengers to Kochi, which the passengers declined.

According to reports, passengers were causing trouble, with a heated debate occurring just outside the cockpit. To avoid a potentially dangerous situation, the lady pilot was prompted to send out a hijack alert.

This provoked more arguments, with passengers accusing the pilot of making false allegations against them.

"As she was leaving everybody said that let the other captain come then she can leave, I think she would have taken it as an attack. As such nobody did anything to her, I think, when everybody raised their voice she might have got scared. Now the next captain is here, cabin crew has also been replaced and they are cleaning the aircraft, we may fly to Kochi in another 30 minutes," a passenger said.

Another said the crew was not attacked, but people were demanding to know what the crew was doing to solve the crisis. One passenger said there was a verbal disagreement in front of the door of the cockpit, but no-one tried to enter it.

The air conditioning in the aircraft is not functioning properly, causing trouble to the passengers. Reports say they were not given food or water, despite being delayed for a further nine hours. "There are families, working people, we are not terrorists; we are sitting inside the plane for over 12 hours. We were not even given water!" said a passenger.

Though it is speculated that the pilot pressed the hijack button is a panic, the matter needs to be taken seriously, with the flight needing clearance from security agencies before it can take off again

The future vision for Chicago O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 5 has been revealed by CDA (the Chicago Department of Aviation) and Westfield Concession Management.

Among its features are 15 new eating and shopping concessions, upgraded passenger facilities and a revised layout aimed at maximising passengers' experience at the site.

Currently, all but five per cent of Chicago O'Hare T5's concessions are situated ahead of security, meaning passengers can't always benefit from them prior to boarding their flights. That situation's now set to change for the better and it's expected the Terminal 5 upgrade will be finished during Q3 2013

Recycled and sustainable materials will be woven into this new Chicago terminal upgrade, say its instigators, and set to be included are new signage, fixtures and fittings and lighting.

The Terminal 5 redevelopment is the first major work of this kind to have been carried out in almost two decades and it'll draw on Westfield Concession Management's extensive shopping venue background. In a mid-October press release issued by airport officials, it's confirmed that Westfield Concession Management and its associates are investing over $26 million into the Chicago O'Hare T5 upgrade.

"The reconfigured Terminal 5 raises the bar for airport concessions programs in Chicago and across the country", CDA Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino explained in this press release. "The redevelopment fulfils Mayor Rahm Emanuel's vision to transform the terminal into a world-class experience for international visitors and Chicago travelers alike."

The Chicago Terminal 5 plans involve 180 construction workers and, once the new concessions are in place, 100 new full-time employment opportunities are set to open up.

Chicago O'Hare International Terminal 5 was constructed 19 years ago and it has 21 shared-use gates, which support the operations of 24 passenger airlines. In total, Chicago O'Hare has no less than 189 passenger gates and, every year, handles over 67 million passengers. That places it among the busiest airports in the world, with connections to almost 200 airports located around the globe

The Civil Aviation Ministry has scrapped the levy of airport development fees (ADF) from Delhi and Mumbai airports, commencing in January 1, 2013.

The decision was made in a bid to make airfares more affordable and boost travel. At the moment, domestic passengers are charged Rs 200 for ADF at Delhi airport, with international passengers paying Rs 1,300. Mumbai's ADF charges are a little less, at Rs 100 and Rs 600 respectively.

DIAL and MIAL will suffer a financial gap of Rs 4,200 crore and Rs 1,175 crore, respectively, after the fee is abolished. To counter this, the ministry has directed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to infuse more equity into DIAL and MIAL. DIAL would receive around Rs 102 crore and MIAL would get about Rs 288 crore. The AAI has a 26% stake in both developers."If the present funding gaps in MIAL and DIAL are met in terms of equity infusion and proportionate raising of loans by the airport promoter, including AAI, the ADF will stand abolished," said the Aviation Ministry. The rest is to be met by airport developers.CEO (South Asia) for aviation thinktank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), Kapil Kaul, said fliers would welcome the move, but he was surprised as the decision overturns the choice made in 2010 by the then aviation minister, Praful Patel."The circumstances are worse now for AAI as far as finances are concerned due to slowdown in the aviation sector. It will be a challenge for the airport developers, especially MIAL for funding their project," Kaul saidThe ministry spokesman said that a new proposal regarding equity infusion would be submitted to Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), soon.DIAL will analyze its financial structure and take in the views of its lenders and equity partners, looking at the ability to raise further debt, and also the impact on air tariffs and will respond to AERA accordingly, according to their statement.Back on July 25, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) slammed AERA for approving a 346% increase in charges at the New Delhi Airport effective in May 2012